Author: Culcheth Chess Club - Admin

During the past few weeks our sides have competed in the opening rounds of the WDCL Cup competitions. “The Peninsular Cup,” “The Kalmar Cup” and “The Kalmar Shield.

We began with a thumping defeat to away at Northwich, only Ian Dutton spared our blushes achieving a draw on top board as the rest of us crashed to a heavy 5.5-0.5 defeat… Unfortunately this match finished somewhat acrimoniously as Nick on board 4 lost on time in a clearly at least drawn position having been winning for large parts of his game.

We then met the same opposition two days later as Andy Coe took over the captaincy in The Kalmar Cup. This competition is grade limited where all players need to have a combined grade of under 9999 points. Ian Dutton achieved a fine win on top board, Andy Coe played particularly well in our feature game that you can play through below. The match finished tied at 2.5-2.5 and we are still unsure whether this will be enough to progress to the next round due to the fact we are awaiting a response from the League over the estimated rating of one of our players.

Finally last Monday our Kalmar Shield team under the charge of non playing captain Tom Vout made their way up to Atherton. I don’t have a narrative to post for this match as I was not present. (Perhaps I can edit this later if any of those playing want to send me some input?) But it seems we began on the back foot by defaulting bottom board and Atherton won the match 3.5-1.5.

B Team Captain Nick Burriss’s match report:

Massively out-graded on every board, The Mighty Bees suffered a heavy (4-1) defeat at Atherton. Several key players were not available to play for us which gave Anthony Lloyd the opportunity to make his league chess debut – and a very impressive one it was too! He so nearly won a Knight and Pawns endgame, but in the end he had to settle for a draw. On top board Tom steadfastly scored our other half-point whilst Vince fell victim to a fierce mating attack, Andy ran out of time in a difficult position and I ran out of luck and ability in a tricky minor pieces and pawns ending.

Never mind. We shall return – hopefully with a glorious victory in our next league match versus ……………….The ‘A’ Team.

We began the season with what has been in most recent years our toughest fixture against local rivals and reigning league Champions Atherton. I was grateful to Andy Coe and Vincent Shanahan for stepping in to play for us in this one as I had quite a long list of regular A team players who were unavaliable.

When we saw the strength of the team Atherton had sent out against us it became clear that we would be up against it. Despite this Jonathan got us off to a terrific early start with a quick win on board 2. (Details of that feature game at the bottom of the page) The church across the street kindly celebrated this victory with 20 minutes or so of bell ringing which was greatly appreciated by all present…

The next results took some time to arrive but when they did came in a flurry, Vincent was heavily outgraded by tournament veteran Mark Whitehead but despite this he looked to be putting up a good fist of it. In the end though Mark’s space advantage began to count as he levelled the scores.

Marek achieved a solid draw against Martin Haymer on top board, although Marek reports that after the game his engine told him he should have played on!

Andy Coe looked to have got the advantage against Lee Kay but sadly one bad move proved fatal and the game swung away from him giving Atherton the lead…

In my own game I was up against old foe Peter Mulleady. Peter played a Smith- Morra Gambit and I managed to cling onto the extra pawn from the opening however only at the cost of allowing bishops of opposite colour to remain. I managed to keep a pair of rooks on and at one point seemed to be in with a chance of pushing with an advanced pawn but Peter found all the right moves and the games ended in a draw.

Well played to all I hope some of the absentees can be present for the next one!